ShockWave
by sanjuuriki
Summary: Web-famous video gamers stumble upon an interesting little gem on the internet, a free, well developed, PC game just waiting for the picking. When immersed, they find that it's a little difficult to climb out of. Pressing ESC or CTRL ALT DEL won't do them much, here.
1. Chapter 1: Texas

We assigned each other individual tasks in hopes that our productivity would help us get to the end of the level. They weren't really _official _responsibilities. Just things that we were kinda good at that made us _"sort of" _in charge of. For example we named Jack the _"gem-seeker" _because he was able to pull through by just seeking out the gems we had the option of collecting. Ryan was the _"path-finder" _because he would often take the time to examine the obstacle course and find the fissure that would help us get to the other side. I wasn't really assigned any sort of specific task, but regardless they named me _"Indiana Jones" _just because of my ability to miraculously pull through a single level with pure luck, and sometimes without any handicaps too.

"I'm not doing it."

Gavin, on the other hand, was a slightly different story. He was perched on the end of the cliff, hunched over with his legs dangling at the edge of the world. He wore a livid expression on his face, lips clamped down firmly into a tight frown with cold eyes glaring into the oblivion that we called an obstacle course. I could already tell he was pretty pissed, now.

"I'm not doing it."

"What's the matter, Gav? You all tired out?"

I was going to call him a pussy but stopped short because my own words were already strained and I could already predict that I was quickly running out of breath. My hands rested over top of my knees as I stood hunched over next to him on the ledge panting.

"I'm not playing this level anymore. This game is mental. I can't take much more of this."

I imagined at first that it was just him whining like the little brat he was about how hard the levels had become. Normally I'd hear a goofy laugh or two follow his sentences, but this time his words were accompanied by nothing. A flat monotone contented with his throat as he shook his head every time he said _"I'm not doing it." _

"Come on, Gavin. You're just complaining because you suck so much. When was the last time you've actually beaten a level, huh? Like level 1?" I chuckled, but Gavin looked highly unimpressed with the antics I gave him. "Gavin, Gavin listen to me." Starting again, I had to unnervingly clear my throat. "We gotta get this level or else we won't ever reach the end. Don't you want to leave with all the achievements? Come on, we started this thing, we might as well end it."

Yet Gavin stubbornly shook his head and turned his back to me to continue staring at the countless erupting volcanoes in the distance of the playing field. Of course I wasn't going to have at it with his bullshit. I tried, but I wasn't committed.

"Fine, be a fucking prick and just sit your ass down there," I exhaled after being left with the male's irritable silence. "You're always dying a thousand times every level. It's almost stupid how you never get to the end of anything. Jack, Ryan and I will get to the end of the level without you, and we'll finish this game without you, too. It's not like you're helping, anyway."

Gavin quickly retaliated with a comeback quietly under his breath just as I determinedly leaped off into a cluster fuck of buzzing chainsaws.

"Be my guest."

I assumed that Gavin wouldn't be able to sit on that ledge forever because in order for the rest of us to re-spawn back into the game, all players would have to die, and every single time I'd find myself back again at the starting line, in the same spot as everyone else of the current level we never completed.

Another wrong, stupid move and immediately I was cleaved into two pieces while the rest of me was shredded like paper by the rest of the blades that arrived to dig through my flesh. Another wail of underlining pain pierced the air that had projected itself from my lungs before disappearing into a cloud of smoke. My blood was all that was left behind, drenching the stainless steel that made up of the spikes from that wheel. The pain, as always, was unbearable- unthinkable. Still I knew it would only last for a second, and that I'd be okay again by the time I would re-spawn.

After what felt like the millionth time over one would think the pain and constant reminder of death would drive a guy mad. It didn't really have an impact on my mentality, personally. I enjoyed playing the game and honestly couldn't get enough of it.


	2. Chapter 2: Florida

Waking up to something a little different than an alarm clock. A buzzer from my doorbell rages past shaking walls to stir the hazy sleep that clouded my thoughts. Drunkenly swept off my feet I reach for the corners of corridors, groggy eyes fiddling with blurred images of the interior that was my home. _Shit- _I had forgotten I was only wearing boxers.

It's too late to complain, however. The warm air of Florida heat brushes past what frail hair has swayed from the skin on my legs. _Ah, right._ The morning newspaper. Rather than reaching down to pick it up I simply whack it by the back of my heel into the inside of my foyer before closing the door behind me after stepping back inside. _Anyone saw me in my boxers? Nah, they should've known much._

I'm reminded that my cat would eventually find its claws in my daily read. It's the only standing reason why I gather enough self-consciousness to pick it up from the floor. When doing so something undoubtedly catches the sleepy eye. Headlines of a popular Swedish male had suddenly gone missing and has left the world wondering where on earth had he gone? Still groggy, but I managed a laugh or two because it reminded me of Felix, mostly because of the fact that the title mentioned _Sweden. _Yeah, real mature. Maybe in a passing conversation I'll run it by Felix today, but first- _yawn! _I still hadn't had my morning coffee...

Well...afternoon coffee sounded more logical. 1:30PM didn't seem to be a desirable time frame to be considered morning, now did it?

Twitter was a busy little thing. Tweets addressed to me or to any other person I followed could not even hope to hold even half of the interest that was deeming for my attention. I went right on ahead to mention something between my afternoon coffee and uploading the next video for my subs. Strangely enough the responses I got weren't about my videos or about my coffee. In fact most of them weren't even about me or someone fawning attention for me. The caffeine hadn't clicked just yet, and my tear stained eyes could only catch glimpses of the name _Pewdiepie _pop up everywhere around my retweets.

_Great. That's another shipping thing, right?_

I'll comment on it later. Something bogus sounding will get them to shut up. I figured if I made enough overly lewd comments about Felix and I everyone would eventually become repulsed by it and quit the whole shenanigan of calling us _PewdieCry. _It was one man's hope. Another's dream, maybe. _My _dream. Kudos to those who were able to make jokes out of them, though. Some went way over the line as far as fan fiction went. I seemed to be fond of the ones who could crack a sense of humor.

Ok, ok. Enough with the fun. The coffee was starting to settle in. I shook my head and cracked my knuckles. It was time to get to work. Someone had sent me a free game as a gift- how thoughtful of them! And what did you know, it was from Felix, too. It was flattering really, Felix didn't do that kind of thing for me often. He wrote a single line for a message to go with it: _This is by far the best game I've ever played. You should definitely try it out! Cheers!_

I thought, the most straight forward message I had ever received from Felix, yet. Nice, easy, short. Unfortunately, he didn't give me much of a description about what the game entailed. I figured it was for the element of surprise. Initially I believed it'd be another one of those dating simulators involving us or some other YouTube gamers. Upon installment it had a pretty simple logo for a thumbnail. A simple red cross outlined in black. The title apparently was called: _Immersion _and the odd thing about it was there were no instructions inside of the zip file I downloaded. It made me a little anxious. I hoped it wasn't one of those pixel horrors- but whatever! I was a pretty good guy. I couldn't do without at least giving it a try.

The results were very pleasing. It didn't appear to be a horror at all. In fact it was an RPG where you got to customize your own character. Cool! Customizations were always something I liked about certain games. I took the next hour or so to carefully pick out my avatar's set abilities and appearance. The graphics were well detailed, the characters and style were similar to the animations done by whoever developed the series of Devil May Cry. I figured I could make a Let's Play on it, though I'd have to wait. Most likely Felix would already be uploading his Let's Plays at this moment. It would be a good idea to keep it on a back burner in case one of my other main series should fail to upload on time. I had to be honest- I was pretty psyched for the game. It seemed suspicious that there weren't any credits or familiar company names written anywhere as I installed and ran the DLC onto my computer. I was worried at first that it may have been copyrighted data from an actual existing company, but Felix sent it to me, I had full faith that it was completely legal. Just to be sure I even made a mental note to ask him about the game's technicalities and background after I finished capturing the frames.

I began the first chapter of the game and was prompted to pick a name. So I enlisted as _Cry _and clicked _start._


End file.
